The Perseverance of a Trademark Troll 63
Sockatume writes "Eurogamer has published an article on Tim Langdell's battle against the Edge iPhone game. Langdell, a British entrepreneur, founded Softek (later renamed The Edge, Edge Games and Edge Interactive Media Inc.) in the 1980s as a venture to fund game development, with profits to be split 50/50 with the developers. He moved to California in the 1990s in the wake of accusations of failing to pay his developers. Now a professor in games studies at National University, an IGDA board member, and a former member of BAFTA-LA's board, 'Dr.' Langdell spends his time accusing people of infringing his trademarks and offering to settle. After delivering a settle-or-die ultimatum to Edge publisher Mobigames (detailed in the article), he has convinced Apple to pull the game from the App Store. Mobigames is preparing to strike back: their lawyer believes that his trademarks are 'liable to be revoked.' Langdell has had a spate of bad press lately as other trademark disputes come to light, involving entities ranging from EA Games to Britain's venerable Edge Magazine (source of Edge Games' logo and now registering its own Edge trademark). He has never actually prevailed in a trademark hearing."
Obscurity isn't a valid defense (Score:3, Informative)
If obscurity were the measure by which a trademark claim could be defended, there are many companies (many of them English!) that would be unable to protect their trademark.
Langdell's company makes games. A quick browsing of Wikipedia shows that "lol ura fagit" and that Edge Games is currently in development to bring their C64 games to the Wii.
So, being the trademark holder, Langdell actually needs to do what he can to protect it or risk losing it. This isn't being a troll, it's looking out for one's own best interest. His trademark is old, on the order of decades. Why would he relinquish it now to some upstart?
Who'll be the first... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Obscurity isn't a valid defense (Score:5, Informative)
He's a troll, because he's obviously exploiting it and only going after successful games that might infringe, and he always threatens to drag it to court unless he gets a big bag of money. In the case of the iPhone game he wanted them to change the name, AND half of the revenues accumulated up until the name change. Mobigames offered to change the name of their game to Edgy, whereupon Langdell as quickly as possible trademarked that name as well, and said that that name change also wasnt' acceptable.
Oh, and they're apparently developing a game called "Mirrors, a game by Edge".
It's those little details that make him a huge trademark troll.
Title (Score:5, Informative)
I should point out that my original title for this article did not refer to him as a trademark troll. I think the term is overused and honestly should only apply to people like Leo Stoller who have no business registering a trademark in the first place, not folk like Langdell who (IMO) take a perfectly valid trademark registration and behave like total assholes in their exploitation of it.
Re:Obscurity isn't a valid defense (Score:4, Informative)
Edge Games has been claiming to develop games for a long time, though, without producing anything. In fact almost all of Langdell's trademark registrations are officially dead, and indeed he only renewed his current UK trademarks when a database purge removed the already-dead marks from their website. And Edge has never sold products in many of the fields it has a trademark registration - they've never published a comic book or a magazine, for example.
Re:I don't get it. (Score:4, Informative)
He's got a doctorate in experimental child psychology - his thesis was on autism. It's just that he refers to himself as Dr. Langdell all the time.
Re:I don't get it. (Score:4, Informative)
I thought the common use was to use the "Dr." prefix when used in an applicable context. Referring to yourself as "Dr." in the context of computer games when your doctorate is in experimental child psychology would imply authority where there is none.
No law or rule, just common use.
Well, you would be wrong. (Score:3, Informative)
Someone with a PhD is perfectly entitled to call themselves Dr. at all times, regardless of circumstances, and common sense doesn't enter into it. My father has one. He calls himself Dr. when buying plane tickets, filling out medical forms, introducing himself to others, and at any other time when someone asks him for his honorific.
Re:Apple didn't pull it (Score:2, Informative)
There's currently a push to get him out of IGDA (Score:4, Informative)
I'm a member in good standing in IGDA.
Recently (in the last month or so?), the following email went out to all registered IGDA members asking to sign a petition to have Tim Langdell removed from the IGDA's board:
The actions of IGDA board member Tim Langdell since his election in March 2009 have raised questions regarding his suitability as our elected representative. As you no doubt know, the IGDA's mission is: To advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community.
Tim Langdell's company, Edge Games, has trademarked the word "edge" and they leverage this trademark against any media that contains this word--threatening legal action should their target not enter into a licensing arrangement with the studio. Such targets have included David Mamet's film The Edge, Marvel's comic book Edge, EA's Mirror's Edge, and Namco's Soul Edge, which was released as Soul Blade and later, Soulcalibur in the west as a direct result of Edge Games' actions. Most recently their actions have resulted in the removal of the indie game hit, Edge, from the iPhone app store.
Meanwhile, Edge Games has not been associated with the direct production of an original video game in the last fifteen years.
After his election to the IGDA board, in a lawsuit against Cybernet regarding Edge of Extinction, Tim Langdell presented himself to the court like this: "Dr. Tim Langdell is considered to be a pioneer in the field of computer gaming and is widely publicized on the Internet and has been engaged as a legal expert in the field of computer gamin." He adds "He presently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Game Developers Association, which is the largest game association worldwide".
Many of us believe that this is a gross misrepresentation and feel that Tim Langdell is able to use his position on the board of the IGDA to work directly against the mission of the organization. As IGDA members with voting rights, it is our responsibility to elect a board that we can trust to represent us. But no election system is perfect and sometimes corrections need to be made.
We are asking that you take some time to consider this issue, do a little research online, make up your mind how you feel about it, and take action.
Under the IGDA bylaws, we are able to call for a special meeting of the membership to vote on the removal of Tim Langdell from the board of directors. In order to do this, we need 10% of the membership to request the board call the special meeting. We are hosting a petition to this effect here: (removed link, as the special meeting is going forward)
Thank you for your consideration,
Concerned Members of the IGDA